Primates

Urgent action needed to save primates from extinction

The majority of primate species worldwide are now threatened with extinction, according to an international group of primate conservation experts who are calling for urgent action to protect the world’s dwindling primate populations.

60 per cent of recognised primate species worldwide are now threatened with extinction, and 75 per cent have declining populations, say the experts in an article in Science Advances.

They are an essential component of tropical biodiversity, contributing to forest regeneration and ecosystem health, and play important roles in the livelihoods, cultures and religions of many societies.

Global priority

However, the scientists say there are possible solutions if governments, NGOs, businesses and organisations, researchers and the public mobilise behind the cause.

Professor Jo Setchell from Durham University’s Department of Anthropology is one of the authors. She said: “This is a dire situation. We must prevent the mass extinction of our closest biological relatives. And it is possible.

“If we can reduce the unsustainable pressures we are putting on primates and their habitats, and make this a global priority, we can stop this downward spiral towards the destruction of these irreplaceable and fascinating species. I can’t imagine a world without other primates, but if we don’t act soon, we will soon be faced with one.”

Closest biological relative

Non-human primates, such as lemurs, monkeys, and apes, are our closest biological relatives and offer unique insights into human evolution, biology, behaviour, and the threat of emerging diseases.

Unsustainable pressures

The experts from the US, Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa say that the threat of extinction is the result of escalating and unsustainable pressures humans are exerting on primates and their habitats.

These include extensive forest loss in response to global market demands through the expansion of industrial agriculture, large-scale cattle ranching, logging, oil and gas drilling, mining, dam building, and the construction of new road networks for resource extraction in primate range countries.

Immediate actions

Professor Setchell added: “This situation will only get worse unless we take immediate action.

“Most primates live in regions with high levels of human poverty and inequality, so we need to take immediate action to improve health and access to education, develop sustainable land-use initiatives, and preserve traditional livelihoods that can contribute to food security and environmental conservation.

“We know all this. It’s time to put it in place.

“If we continue to degrade habitats to the point where they are unsuitable for our primate relatives, these habitats will eventually become unsuitable for us too.”

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Primate Gallery

Slash-and-burn agriculture in Indonesia where trees and plants are cut and burnt to create fields.
Unsustainable human activities are now the major force driving primate species to extinction
Credit W.F.Laurance

The Eastern hoolock gibbon is under threat due to habitat loss, meat trade and folk medicine among other things.
It is estimated that around 60 per cent of primate species are threatened with extinction and 75 per cent have declining populations.
Credit Fan Pen Fei

The threat of extinction is as a result of increasing pressures on the animals and their habitats such as expansion of industrial agriculture, large scale cattle ranching, logging, oil and gas drilling, mining, dam building, and construction of new road networks.
Credit Paul A. Garber

Other important factors in the threatened extinction of primates are bushmeat hunting, illegal trade for pets and body parts, climate change and human to animal diseases.
Credit J. Head

Forest converted to soy fields in Brazil.
Between 1990 and 2010, agricultural expansion in primate range regions was estimated at 1.5 million km², an area three times that of France, and forest cover loss at 2 million km².
Credit Rhett A. Butler

The expansion of rubber plantations in southwest China has caused the near extinction of the northern white-cheeked crested gibbon (pictured) and of the Hainan gibbon.
Credit Fan Pen Fei

Legal and illegal logging is leading to a reduction of canopy cover, destruction of forest undergrowth and the decline of large tree species important to primates as sources of food and shelter.
Credit Rhett A. Butler

Reports on bushmeat hunting indicate that about 150,000 primate carcasses from 16 species are traded annually as bushmeat in markets in Nigeria and Cameroon.
Credit W.F.Laurance

A long-tailed macaque chained as a pet.
Many primate species are traded legally and illegally for various purposes such as consumption, as pets, for body parts in traditional medicine, and as talisman and trophies.
Credit A. Walmsley/Little Fireface Project

Slash-and-burn agriculture for charcoal production in Central Amazonia.
Policies to divert agricultural expansion to areas which cause the lowest environmental impact are essential to reduce spatial conflicts between primate-rich areas and agricultural expansion.
Credit W.F.Laurance